The present disclosure relates to an information processing device, an authoring method, and a program.
In recent years, a technology called augmented reality (AR) has been drawing attention in which a real world with additional information overlaid thereon is presented to a user. Information presented to a user in the AR technology is also called an annotation, and can be visualized using virtual objects in various forms such as text, icons, or animations. For example, when the AR technology is used for advertisement, a virtual object for advertisement (e.g., an image of a product with a catch copy added thereto) can be displayed such that it is overpaid on a wall surface of a building or a sign in the real world. Meanwhile, when the AR technology is used for navigation, a virtual object (e.g., an arrow) for navigation can be displayed such that it is overlaid on a target real object, road, or the like in the real world.
An operation of creating AR content is a kind of so-called authoring. A developer user who authors AR content determines which virtual object should be arranged at which position and in what attitude in a three-dimensional space. The thus determined arrangement of the virtual object is associated with a specific place or a specific real object in the real world and is stored as data.
Reference 1 (A. van den Hengel, R. Hill, B. Ward and A. Dick, “In Situ Image-based Modeling” (In Proc. 8th IEEE International Symposium on Mixed and Augmented Reality, 2009)) shows an example of a technique for modeling a real space at the stage before the arrangement of a virtual object. Reference 2 (W. Daniel, G. Reitmayr, A. Mulloni, T. Drummond and D. Schmalstieg, “Pose Tracking from Natural Features on Mobile Phones” (In Proc, 7th IEEE International Symposium on Mixed and Augmented Reality, 2008)) shows an example of a technique of using a natural marker with the objective of computing the position and the attitude of an imaging device that are needed for overlaying a virtual object on the captured image.